Mind Games
by TDM9218
Summary: Medical School AU in which Killian and Emma must deal with their mutual feelings in uncomfortably close quarters.
1. Chapter 1

**Alright guys, I'm trying something a little different with this one. Normally I don't really use my life as such a direct inspiration for my writing, but today I was in a situation that I thought would make a perfect AU for these two. So here you go. **

**Also I had no intention of writing a multi chapter fic but I felt like there needed to be some background. Hope you enjoy!**

Emma Swan found herself springing out of bed before her obscenely early alarm even went off. Ordinarily hours in a primary care clinic didn't excite her. She had gone to medical school with the plan to do psychiatry from day one and as a fourth year medical student interviewing for her residency anything that wasn't psych was not getting her full attention. There was always plenty of psych involved in primary care, of course, but she found that she was either getting in trouble for taking too long to see a patient or not satisfied that everything that could have been done to help the patients with their psychiatric issues had been done. But today she was assigned to a full afternoon of neuropsychological testing with amazing fellowship trained faculty.

She made herself a healthy well balanced breakfast and sat down with her laptop at her kitchen table to review all the tests normally given in a neuropsychiatric battery. She wanted to be prepared for the inevitable pimp questions her attendings would ask. She then showered and used her hair dryer to make her blonde tresses sit perfectly. Then she slipped into a feminine and professional, knee length, red dress with short sleeves and a black belt. Her standard professional dress shoe – black closed toe pumps – paired with the dress nicely. Her short white coat hanging delicately from the dry cleaner's hanger in her car and holding her black Littman Cardiology III stethoscope would round out the look perfectly.

Meanwhile, just down the hall of Emma's apartment building, Killian Jones was preparing himself for a day that he was considerably less excited about. He hated psychology when he had to take it as a prerequisite for medical school, and four years of medical school had done nothing to make him see it in a better light. Sitting around and talking about your feelings for hours or worse taking medications to adjust your moods simply made you a wimp in his book. To say the least he was dreading wasting a morning watching some shrinks give people questionnaires.

He decided to give himself an added energy boost for what he was sure would be a long day by waking up early enough to get in a light 5 mile run before showering. As per usual though, he had lost track of time running along the picturesque river trail and was now running late. By the time he finished a quick shower and threw on black slacks and a blue dress shirt with a black tie (mandatory) and black dress shoes, he barely had time to grab a chocolate Muscle Milk out of the fridge and scoop his white coat up from the heap he had left it in on his couch on his way out the door.

When Killian got to clinic Emma was already logged into the EMR checking the last notes for all their morning patients. She practically growled a good morning at him as stalked off to go see the first patient, who the medical assistant had just finished rooming. _Whatever, I don't feel like dealing with her attitude today_, he thought to himself.

He had noticed the blonde at the beginning of the first pre-matriculation class that the school had sponsored. He had immediately felt attracted to her. _What red blooded male wouldn't? She was all long silky soft blonde locks, muscular long legs, and gorgeous green eyes_. However, she had made it perfectly clear that she was not into him at all. He periodically tested the waters, but now-a-days it was mostly just to see if he could aggravate her. He had long since given up on her reciprocating any of his advances.

_I can't believe he did it again_, Emma growled internally. She despised Killian Jones more than almost anyone in their 250 person medical school class. From the outside he was a perfect catch, the outward appearance of the college star quarterback (which he was) and a 4.0 GPA. However, his cocky attitude was a major turnoff. She had unfortunately been stuck dealing with him since their pre-matriculation classes to get a jump on the medical school material. He had known almost all the musculoskeletal information from numerous kinesiology and anatomy classes in college (_typical jock fare_ – in her humble opinion). Meanwhile, her hardcore biology and psychology dual major had not prepared her nearly as well for anatomy. Emma Swan was not a woman used to not out performing her peers in everything academic, so it had been really difficult to adjust. Besides, Killian just made everything he ever did look so effortless – acing exams in medical school without studying, running marathons, working insane hours on third year clerkships, and getting into the pants of any woman he wanted. _It was infuriating really. _And because he was such an "all-star" no one seemed to be in the least bit bothered by his constant tardiness, penchant for "slacking", and know-it-all attitude.

She huffed her way through the first visit internally while plastering a smile on her face for the older couple she was seeing. She was proud of her timing this time though. _Hmmmm…. Maybe I should focus on hating him more often_, she thought. But to her chagrin, when she caught up with the attending Killian was already midway through his stellar patient presentation. Their notoriously difficult attending didn't even have a pimp question for him. True to form, Killian winked at her as they turned to go see his patient leaving her in the hallway absentmindedly charting extraneous details to kill time.

The icy glare she shot him when they emerged from his patient's exam room was just one of many he experienced for the remainder of the morning. He had absolutely no idea what had set her off this time. Admittedly, he rarely understood what he did to set her off. He was convinced that a part of it was jealousy – for his academic success and because of his frequent female conquests – not that she would ever admit that.

For the remainder of the morning, they simply tried to stay on opposite ends of the clinic and out of each other's way. Needless to say they were both totally ready for space when lunch time rolled around.


	2. Chapter 2

Emma ate a salad at the campus café quickly, so that she was sure she would be on time (which was 15 minutes early) for her afternoon session. Just as she planned, she arrived 15 minutes early, which afforded her plenty of time to meet the graduate students and the faculty that she idolized. Unfortunately, the physician faculty had a lot of write ups to complete and turned her over to the graduate students almost immediately after meeting her. However, she still managed to have a good conversation with the grad students – mainly discussing their internships and her residency plans.

It wasn't much of a surprise to Emma that Killian didn't "grace" them with his presence until 5 minutes after one. His white coat was wrinkled and dirty at the cuffs and collar, like it hadn't been washed in a couple weeks, but his slacks, shirt, tie and shoes were perfect – no wrinkles, no stains, mirror like shine. And just like that the female graduate student Emma was talking to was under his spell.

He locked eyes with his blonde classmate just in time to see her roll her eyes and sigh heavily. He shook the grad student's hand. She in turn showed them the room in which they would be testing the patient. It was done in dark wood like an office with cabinets all along one wall, a desk in the center, and plenty of chairs. Before either of them could select a chair to make themselves comfortable in, the student said, "You'll be back here," and motioned what looked like a viewing window.

She led them out of the testing room to the next door, which she opened revealing a closet sized dark room with a mini fan and two steps for seats. Their discomfort must have been palpable for a short moment. Neither student wanted to be the first to enter. _No way! They can't expect me to spend over two hours in a closet with him!, _Emma yelled internally. _Forget seven minutes in heaven; this is more like seven hours of hell._ She grudgingly entered ahead of him and delicately set her backpack down on the floor to remove her notebook and climb up to the top step. He took a deep breath, thoughts of walking into the lion's den racing through his mind, and followed her lead. Since he had nothing but water with him he simply plopped down on the seat beside her.

"Now the speaker is on the wall to your left. You can adjust the volume by turning the knob. You can turn on the fan if you want, but absolutely no lights. The door has to remain closed," the graduate student informed them.

The door closed behind the grad student, and just like that they were left alone. Emma hated the proximity of him. She wasn't fond of anyone being in her personal space (and two inches from sitting thigh to thigh in a dark closet definitely counted as in her personal space), especially not strange men. She wasn't sure she could actually use the term "strange man" when referring to Killian though.

_Flashback _– She was in the library poring over Netter's and Thieme anatomy atlases at a small table in a private study room. Her computer sat in front of the books open to the virtual cadaver dissection and at least twelve muscle tables were spread out on the table as well. She was obsessed with learning all the muscles origins and insertions and functions. So much so that she hadn't taken a break in over six hours. She had been oblivious to her surroundings, but Killian had apparently been very aware of her presence across the hall. He knocked softly, at first so softly she wasn't sure the noise was real, but she looked up anyway and there he was. He turned the handle without actually asking, but she forgave him when he sat the hot chocolate with cinnamon, just like she liked it next to the atlas. He glanced about at her study materials. "Having trouble, Emma?"

He asked with such genuine concern that she managed to let her guard down and be honest. "Yeah, I am. There are just so many, you know?"

He nodded. "Can I help? I'm actually kind of good at this stuff."

She was willing to bet he was. It was no secret that he had played college football and was the model of physical perfection thanks to working out daily. All she could do was reluctantly nod; she really did need to ace this exam in two days.

He helped her up and started to pack away her things. "What are you doing, Jones?"

"We're going somewhere a little more conducive to learning," he said with a devilish smirk.

Ten minutes later, she found herself in his apartment three doors down from her own. He started by teaching her the muscles of the rotator cuff, their actions and the tests for injuries by guiding her arms through the motions. It sent shivers up and down her spine to feel him standing behind her pressed so close and practically whispering in her ear, but for once they weren't shivers of fear.

As the evening progressed they moved to the muscles of the lower extremities. Gracilis muscle adducts the hip, the muscles of the pes anserine and the piriformis muscle externally rotating your thigh were only some of the muscles that Killian had great memorization devices for. But by far her favorite had been his memorization device for the sartorius muscle – the Captain Morgan muscle. He looked every inch the pirate when he posed for her to demonstrate the function. When she hadn't immediately recognized the reference, he had produced a bottle of Captain Morgan rum.

That's when they had started taking shots. From there it becomes a bit of a blur, until the kiss. The one fateful kiss, when they had both given into the moment and proximity. The moment she had forgotten who she was and who he was. She had lost herself in the kiss, but when it broke everything came rushing back to her, namely Neal. She had fled his presence and never looked back – until now. _– End Flashback_

"Emma?" Killian queried.

He must have been talking to her while she was lost in her own memory. "What?" she asked mildly annoyed with herself for letting her mind drift to that incident years ago.

"I was just wondering how the interview season was going for you. You chose psychiatry, right?" _I'm trying really hard to keep things neutral here; you could at least help me out._

"Yeah, I did." She proceeded to tell him about all the amazing places she had interviews arranged all over the country. _This is safe conversation_, she assured herself.

He nodded and followed along like he was thoroughly interested, which she didn't believe for a second. But it was nice to get to talk about herself for a change. Then she noticed he seemed to be ticking things off on his fingers as she spoke. Irritated at his obvious lack of interest she stopped. "What are you counting?"

"Relax, Swan. I'm just keeping a running tally of all the places we're both interviewing. We could almost be travel buddies."

"You're applying for psychiatry too?" she asked incredulously.

He chuckled. "Nope, I'm orthopedic surgery."

_Fitting,_ she thought._ He has the jock personality and physique, and only a surgeon can be that full of themselves._


End file.
